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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Cinco de Snake-O Plus One (Guest Post by Jim Godwin)

Note: This is a Guest Post by Jim Godwin. Jim has spent decades working outside and conducting studies on the natural history and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. He has countless stories. I'm trying to convince him to contribute to this blog regularly; please help me encourage him in the Comments.

I have had a life-long interest in amphibians and reptiles
from my early years in northeastern Arkansas where I had access to a great
richness of snakes and turtles literally in my backyard.I later found my way to Alabama, left
for a few years, but returned when hired as zoologist with the Alabama Natural
Heritage Program.During my time
with ALNHP we have had several homes before permanently settling down at
Auburn University.Here I have
been able to focus on survey, inventory, and research projects on a range of herps, including the Indigo Snake, Red Hills Salamander, Black Warrior Waterdog, Flattened Musk Turtle, Gopher Tortoise, Alligator Snapping Turtle, Map Turtles, and Alabama Red-bellied Turtle.

5 May 2012 and snakes are hitting the ground, but not
literally.Tongue flick, tongue
flick, tentative forward crawl, tongue flick, slight turn of the neck, tongue
flick, tongue flick, twist of the body, rapid slither down a gopher tortoise
burrow and one more Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi) has been set free on this warm spring
morning. I, and a small crowd of
other indigo enthusiasts, stand nearby to see yet another snake entering the
wilds of south Alabama.

The day began with a gathering in Andalusia, Alabama for the
third release of Eastern Indigo Snakes onto Conecuh National Forest.A short caravan of vehicles that I was
heading proceeded south through the early morning fog along US 29 then AL 137
before making the turn leading to the focal point for the morning’s
activities.Represented on this
day were indigo snake researchers from Auburn University, The Orianne Society, US
Forest Service, the Auburn University student chapter of the Society of
Conservation Biology, Georgia Public Broadcasting, The Jones Ecological
Center, and other interested individuals.

As with the two previous releases in 2010 and 2011, most of
these snakes have been implanted with a radio transmitter which allows Jimmy
and Sierra Stiles to follow their movements.Jimmy and Sierra have each taken on studies of these Eastern Indigo Snakes for their research theses.Without the technological aid of the transmission of a unique radio
signal we would not be able to learn of the movements and survival of the
snakes.An adult Eastern Indigo Snake in hand is a large, impressive, deep blue-black, conspicuous serpent, but
in the wild the snakes blend with their environment.The sheen and coloration of their black bodies intermingle
with the mottled shade found under vegetation, thus cryptically concealing even
the largest of snakes.

The overall goal of our conservation effort is to establish
a population of the Eastern Indigo Snake in south Alabama, and Conecuh National
Forest is the chosen location. In concert with the conservation effort is
research to test release methodologies, compare movements, home range size, and
habitat usage to wild populations in Georgia, determine how many snakes live
from year to year, and identify causes of death.

One year later and
my morning begins with the loading of 20 boxes, each containing a snake, into
the back of my Land Cruiser, filling the rear seat area floor to ceiling.The snakes were guests of mine in the
motel where I had stayed the previous night, and I was very careful to make a thorough head count before leaving.

Today, 9
May 2013, we have no crowds to commemorate the freedom of additional Eastern Indigo Snakes.Today I am one of
only nine on hand to experience the event of the release. Folks from Auburn
University, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the
U.S. Forest Service are all that are present.But with fewer snakes this year small is good.

Standing over a gopher tortoise burrow, GPS in one hand and notebook in the other, Jimmy Stiles
records the release location of the eastern indigo snake his wife Sierra is
setting free.Today marks
the fourth release event for the Eastern Indigo Snake reintroduction project
that Auburn University is leading at Conecuh National Forest.By the end of the morning an additional
20 snakes will be roaming the forest.Along with those released the three previous years this will bring the
total number of juvenile indigo snakes to 98.

After four releases
and three years of radio-tracking snakes what have we learned?One is that snakes cannot be
contained.The release techniques
we tested included keeping a snake temporarily within pens (soft-release) versus just letting it go into the wild (hard-release).The main question
to be answered was whether soft-released snakes had a better chance of surviving. The answer is probably but I have to be vague because most snakes discovered points of exit
earlier than planned.And quite
surprisingly, some snakes returned to pens after making an early exit.

Our snakes were
reared in captivity for nearly two years, from the egg to about a meter in
length, or the minimum size to comfortably hold a transmitter. While many were
held in large outdoor tubs for a couple of weeks prior to release we actually
did not know if the snakes would transition successfully from lab to wild.The short answer is they did and very
well.As soon as being released
snakes began to act like wild snakes.Some exhibited defensive behavior, all took immediate refuge in burrows,
stump holes, or under cover, and one was found consuming a Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) within 18
hours after its release.

Overall the project
is being met with cautious optimism.Signs of success are evident.Snakes are surviving from year to year, juveniles are maturing, and
reproduction is underway although hatching in the wild is yet to be
documented.But, unfortunately the occasional death of snakes occurs within this experimental population, and the fate of these snakes is
usually to be crushed under the tires of a vehicle or captured within the talons of a raptor or jaws of a
mammalian predator.

Success may also be
measured in the formation of the partnership that has developed around the Eastern Indigo Snake.Federal and
state agencies, conservation organizations, and an academic animal to
Alabama.Too often - due to our
human limitations in understanding the natural world - we think we have the answers.In this instance we have some of the
answers and as each year passes we have more. Many of the answers have come
from something unexpected because the snakes are living and behaving as the wild
snakes that they should become.